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Tbilisi (Tiflis)

Tbilisi (თბილისი) is the capital and largest city in the nation of Georgia. During Tchaikovsky's lifetime the city was known as Tiflis (Тифлис), and it was the administrative centre of the Tiflis province (Тифлисская губерния) of the Russian Empire.

During the second half of the 1880s the composer's brother Anatolii was state prosecutor and later deputy governor in Tiflis. Tchaikovsky visited the city every year between 1886 and 1890:

• 31 March/12 April–29 April/11 May 1886 — during his first visit to the city he spent much time with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov and his wife Varvara Zarudnaia, and worked on the draft of Act III of the opera The Enchantress. He attended a special Russian Musical Society concert (19 April/1 May), conducted by Ippolitov-Ivanov, which included the premiere of the final version of the overture-fantasia Romeo and Juliet, and a production of his opera Mazepa (25 April/7 May). "Tiflis itself is unusually likable and original, particularly because Europe and Asia confront each other here, a combination of piquant contrasts" [1].
• 30 May/11 June–11/23 June 1887 — with visits to the theatre almost every day, including a production of The Enchantress (1/13 June).
• 26 March/7 April–14/26 April 1888 — at the end of a long foreign tour, he completed his Autobiographical Account of a Tour Abroad in the Year 1888.
• 13/25 April–2/14 May 1889 — staying with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, while working on his ballet The Sleeping Beauty. He also attended a chamber music concert given in his honour at the Artists' Society (30 April/12 May).
• 7/19 September–23 October/4 November 1890 — here he completed the symphonic ballad The Voevoda (4/16 October), and conducted a concert of his own works (20 October/1 November), including the Suite No. 1, the Serenade for String Orchestra, and the overture The Year 1812.

Notes:

1. Letter 2936 to Boris Jurgenson, 21 April/3 May 1886 [back]